Battles/New Battles Without Honor and Humanity

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domino harvey
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Battles/New Battles Without Honor and Humanity

#1 Post by domino harvey » Thu Aug 13, 2015 11:18 am

NEW UK/US TITLE ANNOUNCEMENT: BATTLES WITHOUT HONOR AND HUMANITY DUAL FORMAT BD & DVD [Limited Edition]

Battles Without Honor & Humanity - this seminal series of epic gangsterism told with gritty realism plays like a head-spinning fusion of Martin Scorsese and Paul Greengrass! This Limited Edition collections features Kinji Fukasaku’s (BATTLE ROYALE) original five films in the series with brand new extras, the never-before-seen in the west ‘Complete Saga’ and a 150-page hardback book! Limited to just 2000 copies (UK) and 3000 copies (USA). Individual editions of each of the five films (the Saga and book remain exclusive to this collection) will become available in 2016!

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UK Release Date: 16th November 2015
US Release Date: 17th November 2015
Region: A+B/1+2

Kinji Fukasaku (Battle Royale) gave the world Japan’s answer to The Godfather with this violent yakuza saga, influencing filmmakers from Quentin Tarantino (Kill Bill, Reservoir Dogs) to Takashi Miike (Graveyard of Honor, Audition). Made within just two years, the five-film series brought a new kind of realism and ferocity to the crime genre in Japan, revitalizing the industry and leading to unprecedented commercial and critical success.

Literally exploding onscreen with a mushroom cloud, and ending with Hiroshima’s A-bomb Dome, the epic story of Battles Without Honor and Humanity follows over 100 characters through twenty years of gang wars, alliances, betrayals, and assassinations, in an exciting exploration of criminal power and politics in Japan. In the opening episode, ex-soldier Shozo Hirono escapes from the post-war black markets to become a key member of the Yamamori gang, but soon finds himself disillusioned by the selfish duplicity of his bosses. Hiroshima Death Match focuses on a demobilized kamikaze pilot drifting through the early 1950’s, whose suicidal impulses find good use as a mob assassin. Proxy War and Police Tactics form a labyrinthine, two-part story of ambition and betrayal set against Japan’s rapid economic growth of the 1960’s, with Shozo caught between warring factions. Final Episode concludes the series in the 1970’s as the former Yamamori gang transforms itself into an economic conglomerate called the Tensei Group, in a bid for mainstream respectability.

Fukasaku and his team broke with the longstanding studio tradition of casting marquee idols as honorable, kimono-clad heroes, defending their gang bosses against unscrupulous villains, and instead adapted true accounts torn from the headlines, shot in a documentary-like style, and with few clear-cut heroes or villains. The vibrancy and dynamism of the filmmaking, plus its shocking violence, Shakespearean plotlines, and wide tapestry of characters, launched a revolutionary new genre, establishing the series as one of the great masterpieces of world crime cinema.

LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS
•Limited Edition Blu-ray Collection
•High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentation of all five original films
•Original Mono audio (uncompressed PCM on the Blu-rays)
•Optional English subtitles for all five films
•Remembering Kinji – a new featurette about director Kinji Fukasaku and his work, featuring interviews with Kenta Fukasaku and film critic and Fukasaku biographer Sadao Yamane
•Secrets of the Piranha Army – a new documentary about the troupe of supporting actors who appeared throughout the series, featuring new interviews with original Piranha members Masaru Shiga and Takashi Noguchi, plus second-generation Piranha, Takashi Nishina and Akira Murota
•All the Bad Guys – a new, comprehensive video guide to the actors in the films
•Fukasaku Family – a new interview with Proxy War and Police Tactics assistant director Toru Dobashi
•Man of Action – a new interview with series fight choreographer Ryuzo Ueno
•Tales of a Bit Player – a new interview with supporting actor and stuntman Seizo Fukumoto
•Last Days of the Boss – a new interview with Final Episode screenwriter Koji Takada
•Yakuza Graveyard – a new interview with Takashi Miike about Kinji Fukasaku and the yakuza film genre
•Original trailers for the series
•Original poster gallery for the series
•Limited Edition packaging and reversible sleeves for all five films including original and newly commissioned artwork by Reinhard Kleist

THE COMPLETE SAGA [LIMITED EDITION EXCLUSIVE]
•English-subtitled premiere of the 224-minute compilation edition of the first four films, previously screened only as part of a limited Japanese theatrical release in 1980 and on the Toei cable channel
• Introduction by Complete Saga editorial supervisor Toru Dobashi

THE YAKUZA PAPERS [LIMITED EDITION EXCLUSIVE]
•150-page hardback book featuring writing on the history of the yakuza film genre, the background and continuing importance of the Battles series, and additional essays on the men who made them, including a newly-reprinted and fully annotated edition of Paul Schrader's classic 1974 Film Comment essay Yakuza-Eiga: A Primer, a new, exclusive English translation of screenwriter Kazuo Kasahara’s 1974 Scenario magazine essay on his writing process for the first four films, as well as new essays and interviews from critics and authors Chris D., Grady Hendrix, Patrick Macias, Tom Mes, Mark Schilling, and Jasper Sharp.

UK LIMITED TO 2000 COPIES
US LIMITED TO 3000 COPIES

(Individual releases will follow the box)

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domino harvey
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Re: Battles Without Honor and Humanity

#2 Post by domino harvey » Thu Aug 13, 2015 11:23 am

plays like a head-spinning fusion of Martin Scorsese and Paul Greengrass!
Well, I was interested in this box

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swo17
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Re: Battles Without Honor and Humanity

#3 Post by swo17 » Thu Aug 13, 2015 11:33 am

No need to worry, it's more like if Scorsese had directed the Godfather films in an alternate universe in which the Rolling Stones did not exist.

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manicsounds
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Re: Battles Without Honor and Humanity

#4 Post by manicsounds » Thu Aug 13, 2015 11:45 am

Surprised they didn't mention Friedkin's name.

Was hoping for a Criterion upgrade, and also waiting for Arrow to release more Fukasaku films. Looks like another winner from Arrow. Plus I wasn't willing to shell out the big bucks for the Japanese blu-ray set.

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bainbridgezu
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Re: Battles Without Honor and Humanity

#5 Post by bainbridgezu » Thu Aug 13, 2015 11:46 am

domino harvey wrote:Pre-order your UK copy here: http://bit.ly/1hzEQpE" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
North American pre-orders links should be live soon!
Will the North American version be available through Arrow's shop?

I'd like to get the early bird price and support Arrow directly. I realize that the editions are technically identical, but I wouldn't mind losing the BBFC logos, or avoid cutting into the UK's (more) limited numbers.

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Re: Battles Without Honor and Humanity

#6 Post by cdnchris » Thu Aug 13, 2015 11:50 am

swo17 wrote:No need to worry, it's more like if Scorsese had directed the Godfather films in an alternate universe in which the Rolling Stones did not exist.
I don't know if I want to live in a world where I can't watch a montage visually synched to the rhythms of "Gimme Shelter" featuring gangsters doing ill-ass shit.

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Re: Battles Without Honor and Humanity

#7 Post by Calvin » Thu Aug 13, 2015 11:51 am

Perhaps the differences between the UK/US editions will be more pronounced than usual, considering we like to put a 'u' in honour here in Blighty?

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domino harvey
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Re: Battles Without Honor and Humanity

#8 Post by domino harvey » Thu Aug 13, 2015 12:01 pm

cdnchris wrote:
swo17 wrote:No need to worry, it's more like if Scorsese had directed the Godfather films in an alternate universe in which the Rolling Stones did not exist.
I don't know if I want to live in a world where I can't watch a montage visually synched to the rhythms of "Gimme Shelter" featuring gangsters doing ill-ass shit.
Well Chris, you can't always get what you-u-u w-a-a-ant

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Re: Battles Without Honor and Humanity

#9 Post by perkizitore » Thu Aug 13, 2015 12:04 pm

I find it hard to believe that their exclusive early bird price of 65GBP is that great since the RRP is less than 100GBP. I like to support Arrow directly and pre-ordered the Yoshida and Rivette boxsets immediately, but I might hold off on this one for a while.

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tenia
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Re: Battles Without Honor and Humanity

#10 Post by tenia » Thu Aug 13, 2015 12:31 pm

The Rivette set offers an Early Bird discount of about 50% the RRP, Battle about 36% and Yoshida 40%. Arrow webstore usually offers between 17 and 28% discount on the RRP, so it looks about right. Actually, the Rivette has an incredible discount compared to the RRP, that's IMO what can make the discount on the Battle set look so smaller.

In all cases though, I'm very happy to see the comeback of the Early Birds prices, especially when combined with the Arrow points.

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rapta
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Re: Battles Without Honor and Humanity

#11 Post by rapta » Thu Aug 13, 2015 12:57 pm

The comparisons to Scorsese, Greengrass or Tarantino are obviously in layman's terms...these Yakuza titles might be a bit of a hard sell to portions of their Arrow Video audience.

I'm gonna wait it out for the separate releases most likely, as there is no way I can afford this set after the Yoshida and Rivette announcements! Very happy they've decided to release these later on as separate editions as it means I won't miss out if this set does go OOP. Obviously the first film will be a priority though!

Talking of newly-restored Japanese titles, anyone else see some screenshots from the MoC release of Ôshima's Cruel Story of Youth? It looks spectacular!

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Re: Battles Without Honor and Humanity

#12 Post by tomN245 » Thu Aug 13, 2015 1:38 pm

domino harvey wrote:
cdnchris wrote:
swo17 wrote:No need to worry, it's more like if Scorsese had directed the Godfather films in an alternate universe in which the Rolling Stones did not exist.
I don't know if I want to live in a world where I can't watch a montage visually synched to the rhythms of "Gimme Shelter" featuring gangsters doing ill-ass shit.
Well Chris, you can't always get what you-u-u w-a-a-ant
Woah, Chris. You got to shy away, you got to shy a way.

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Finch
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Re: Battles Without Honor and Humanity

#13 Post by Finch » Thu Aug 13, 2015 2:10 pm

I may hold off for the individual releases as well. Anyone care to comment if the other films are as good as the first? Presumably the individual releases will retain the extras relating to each film separately. I am really not a fan of those massive dual format box sets but I understand it made no sense to split them up, in terms of costs.

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swo17
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Re: Battles Without Honor and Humanity

#14 Post by swo17 » Thu Aug 13, 2015 2:16 pm

I've always considered these to be like a single film of generally consistent quality throughout. In any case, I can't imagine anyone solely shelling out for, say, Final Episode.

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Finch
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Re: Battles Without Honor and Humanity

#15 Post by Finch » Thu Aug 13, 2015 2:21 pm

Thanks for that, swo. I do have another Fukasaku Yakuza film on an older HVE DVD and quite enjoyed that. I'll mull it over. I can't see the 224 minute edit being more than a curiosity at best but the Yakuza Papers book does sound excellent.

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Re: Battles Without Honor and Humanity

#16 Post by kidc85 » Thu Aug 13, 2015 2:53 pm

perkizitore wrote:I find it hard to believe that their exclusive early bird price of 65GBP is that great since the RRP is less than 100GBP. I like to support Arrow directly and pre-ordered the Yoshida and Rivette boxsets immediately, but I might hold off on this one for a while.
£65 divided by the 5 main films comes out as £13 per film. For comparison, the Borowczyk single releases are priced at £16 directly from Arrow and around £12 on Amazon. It's not a bargain or anything, but it seems like a fair price to me.

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zedz
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Re: Battles Without Honor and Humanity

#17 Post by zedz » Thu Aug 13, 2015 4:28 pm

Finch wrote:I may hold off for the individual releases as well. Anyone care to comment if the other films are as good as the first? Presumably the individual releases will retain the extras relating to each film separately. I am really not a fan of those massive dual format box sets but I understand it made no sense to split them up, in terms of costs.
The subsequent films calm down a little after the first one, in my opinion, which is one of the most breathlessly incident-heavy films I can remember seeing (new characters and settings introduced and dispatched every five minutes etc.), and that's what makes it so exhilarating. The sequels are twisty enough, but they tend to focus on a single threat that gets resolved in 90 minutes like in normal films, whereas the first one feels more like a bracing avalanche of chaos.

They're all top rank 70s Japanese genre filmmaking.

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Paul Moran
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Re: Battles Without Honor and Humanity

#18 Post by Paul Moran » Thu Aug 13, 2015 5:12 pm

Wait long enough and the individual releases may feature in one of Arrow's £7.99 sales. The book, and the 224 minute compilation, aren't worth the extra £25 to me. So I too will wait for the individual releases. It will be a relief to get that nasty HVE tin slipcase off my shelves, though!

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TMDaines
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Re: Battles Without Honor and Humanity

#19 Post by TMDaines » Fri Aug 14, 2015 4:47 am

Paul Moran wrote:Wait long enough and the individual releases may feature in one of Arrow's £7.99 sales. The book, and the 224 minute compilation, aren't worth the extra £25 to me. So I too will wait for the individual releases. It will be a relief to get that nasty HVE tin slipcase off my shelves, though!
The Boros were only £6 - I think - in Fopp only a couple of months after release.

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rapta
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Re: Battles Without Honor and Humanity

#20 Post by rapta » Fri Aug 14, 2015 12:18 pm

TMDaines wrote:
Paul Moran wrote:Wait long enough and the individual releases may feature in one of Arrow's £7.99 sales. The book, and the 224 minute compilation, aren't worth the extra £25 to me. So I too will wait for the individual releases. It will be a relief to get that nasty HVE tin slipcase off my shelves, though!
The Boros were only £6 - I think - in Fopp only a couple of months after release.
Not sure it was a 'couple of months' - I bought the Short Films & Animation release for £7 in Fopp, but that was 6 months (March 2015) after they were first released separately (September 2014). I understand they went back up in price soon after.

So assuming they release these the same way, then maybe we'll be able to get them cheap 5-6 months later in Fopp for £7...or in one of their Arrow Store sales. I think that's what I'm gonna do anyway - I can wait.

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Finch
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Re: Battles Without Honor and Humanity

#21 Post by Finch » Fri Aug 14, 2015 1:40 pm

Thank you for the feedback, zedz. I think I'll be content with the first one on its own, and spend my November salary on the Apu set instead.

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Re: Battles Without Honor and Humanity

#22 Post by Werewolf by Night » Fri Aug 14, 2015 2:07 pm

Such tepid responses to this announcement! I will enthusiastically and without a moment's hesitation buy the US limited set. Why aren't you taking my money already?

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feihong
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Re: Battles Without Honor and Humanity

#23 Post by feihong » Fri Aug 14, 2015 3:49 pm

There's a lot of big releases coming soon. There's the Yoshida and the Rivette boxsets, which have never been done before. I'll be happy to upgrade these films from my old Home Vision set, but it's a lot of large, expensive releases at around the same time. Maybe people are suffering from release-fatigue?

I am really looking forward to seeing what these look like in hi definition. I remember liking Proxy War the most out of the films, and Deadly Fight in Hiroshima had a lot of interesting camera angles. Deadly Fight seems like a very different kind of film than the others--a little more of the traditional melodrama than these films offer in general. I wonder why no one has ever upped the ante on this release and do something with the sequel series, New Battles Without Honor and Humanity? Fukasaku directed 3 of those films as well. This group of 5 is always treated as if it's one, complete series, but the series was essentially still continuing after the so-called "final episode." There's even a final episode directed by Eiichi Kudo.

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Re: Battles Without Honor and Humanity

#24 Post by Landjorden » Sat Aug 15, 2015 4:42 am

I bought this as soon as it came up, but then again I don't really care for Rivette (Blasphemy! I know).

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Re: Battles Without Honor and Humanity

#25 Post by Orlac » Sat Aug 15, 2015 10:05 am

I'm still wondering why I went for Rivette, when I never heard of him before, and didn't even like the sound of the films. I think I have a problem!

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